This article showcases the redesign of an introductory undergraduate vertebrate physiology unit at Murdoch University (BMS107) to promote student mastery of six Core Concepts of Physiology (Michael J, Cliff W, McFarland J, Modell H, Wright A, SpringerLink. "The Core Concepts of Physiology: a New Paradigm for Teaching Physiology," 2017).…

Big ideas, sometimes referred to as key, core, fundamental or threshold concepts, are widely applicable concepts at the heart of disciplines that are or have been central and influential for their fields. Attention here is particularly directed to meta-concepts common to sister disciplines in the sciences. "Learning thresholds",…

An Australia-wide consensus was reached on seven core concepts of physiology, one of which was cell-cell communication. Three physiology educators from a "core concepts" Delphi task force "unpacked" this core concept into seven different themes and 60 subthemes. Cell-cell communication, previously unpacked and validated, was…

A task force of physiology educators from 25 Australian universities generated an Australia-wide consensus on seven core concepts for physiology curricula. One adopted core concept was "cell membrane," defined as "Cell membranes determine what substances enter or leave the cell and its organelles. They are essential for cell…

At the commencement of 2022 there was an opportunity to be engaged in a curriculum development project focused on reimagining mathematics learning in primary schools. Schools were seeking new experiences to support engaging students and teachers in mathematics learning. Laburnum Primary School participated in the project with Monash University,…

This article outlines the knowledge and skills students develop when they engage in digital media production and analysis in school settings. The metaphor of "digital building blocks" is used to describe the material practices, conceptual understandings and production of knowledge that lead to the development of digital media literacy.…

Since 1969, over 60 Australian government and non-government policies, documents, committees, working parties and organisations have explored the need to "know Asia". In schools, this engagement is conceptualised as "Asia literacy" and disseminated in the emerging Australian Curriculum through the cross-curriculum priority…

Threshold concepts were used to underpin a major curriculum reform endeavour in occupational therapy. After rigorous interrogation of troublesome knowledge and ensuring that the emergent concepts conformed to the five characteristics of previously proposed threshold concepts, we identified five threshold concepts. Two years into the rollout of the…

This review essay examines three new books on higher education and sustainability. It explores a number of the issues raised in the books, in particular, the meaning of a transformative orientation towards sustainability. The idea of loose and tight conceptual framings of sustainability is employed. A tight framing is where an institution embodies…

Current Australian teacher accreditation processes are impacting significantly on the expectations of teacher education courses, particularly in relation to graduate resilience, flexibility and capability. This paper uses a logical conceptual format to explain how writers at a Western Australian university prepared a new Secondary Degree course,…

Developing curricula for languages in the context of the Australian Curriculum is a complex undertaking that needs to address a number of demands. These include: the nature of language-and-culture learning for contemporary times within an increasingly diverse linguistic and cultural world; the goals of mainstream education and the…

Australia is in the process of implementing a national geography curriculum to replace the separate state and territory curriculums. The paper describes the process of curriculum development, and identifies the different groups that were involved. These included the board and staff of the national curriculum authority, geography teachers across…

Curriculum reform aimed at improving students' reasoning strategies for calculating was the focus of a research project in which the authors participated along with two school communities in regional Victoria. Another focus of the research was assisting teachers to gain insight into how their students approached calculations. This article explores…

The purpose of this collaborative inquiry project was to examine teacher education practices in two early childhood degree programmes in a school of education at a regional university in Australia. All students are enrolled in these online courses as distance learners. The reconceptualised online pedagogy immersed students, peers and their…

Taking account of cultural reality through differential curriculum development is proposed as one way to counter the effects of the age of indifference" in Australian and other societies. (DM)